Cyclist killed in Logan Square crash mourned by family members

Boyfriend was preparing to ask her to marry him

James Bausch was picking up an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Amanda "Mandy" Annis, the last time he spoke to her.

As he rode his bicycle to her home Wednesday, he thought nothing of the police swarmed at Kedzie and Armitage Avenues. Searching for Annis later, he learned of the accident from an investigator there.

Annis, a 5th-grade teacher at a West Side school, was killed about 3 p.m. when her bicycle collided with a car. Police said a preliminary investigation indicates the driver might have run a red light.

"[Police] said she had been struck and killed instantly," Bausch, 27, said. "Over the next couple minutes, I had to have them tell me several times" to believe it.

Bausch had planned to whisk her away to Pennsylvania this weekend to see her parents for the first time since they had moved back from Romania, he said. He was going to ask her father for her hand in marriage and then propose.

Annis, 24, spent most of her adolescence in Romania, where her family worked as Christian missionaries, said her father, John. She moved from Romania to Chicago to attend Moody Bible Institute.

After graduation, she took a job at Humboldt Community Christian School.

"She wanted to be the best teacher she could be for her kids," her older brother Jonathan wrote in a message on Facebook. "She was proud of them, loved to tell us all stories about her experiences with them in class, and really enjoyed her work."

Even though she lived far away from her two younger sisters, Annis was always there for them, her mother, Lynn, wrote in an e-mail. When her youngest sister got lost in Massachusetts, for example, Annis helped guide her home.

Irene, one of Mandy's sisters, said she always could count on Mandy to remind her that she didn't need that guy who hurt her.

"When a stupid boy broke my heart she told me he was ugly, his teeth were gross and she would have disowned me had I ever dated him, telling me I could do so much better," Irene Annis wrote in a Facebook message.

For being so young, Mandy Annis had a full life, her mother said. She had climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the steps to Dracula's castle in Romania and Mt. Olympus in Greece. She had jumped off cliffs in Greece, ran two Chicago Marathons and even sewn a wedding gown for her brother's bride.

Annis of the 3200 block of West Belden Avenue loved biking, her brother said. She had a car at one time but sold it when she decided she could bike everywhere.

Annis was not the first bicyclist killed at the Logan Square intersection. A 19-year-old girl died there in September when a garbage truck made a right turn onto Kedzie and struck her, police said. And Tyler Fabeck, 22, was killed in the Logan Square area within the last two weeks.

Annis was riding west on Armitage Avenue about 3 p.m. when she was hit by a Chevrolet Lumina heading north on Kedzie Avenue, authorities said. She died at the scene.

There was a helmet recovered at the scene, but police couldn't say whether she was wearing it.

The driver of the Lumina, Cordell Curtis, 23, of the 9200 block of South Justine Street was cited Thursday for failure to reduce speed, reckless driving and having no insurance, Chicago Police Officer Laura Kubiak said.

"We don't know why things happen the way they do," her father, John Annis, said as his voice broke. "But we trust [God's] heart that the best has happened, although it certainly doesn't feel that way."

Annis was the best big sister she could ask for, said her youngest sister, Amelia. .

"She's going to be remembered always," Amelia Annis wrote in a Facebook message. "She'll be the subject of many stories, and my kids will know about her.

"I loved her so much, and she knew that because those were the last words we said to each other."